Liberté is a mix of top-down strategy, a roguelite, a deck builder, and is infused with aspects of Cosmic Horror.
Superstatic Studio is a bright group of game developers new to the gaming development front. Although not much information is known about the studio, Liberté shows that the studio has incredible love and dedication to what they create. They have joined forces with Anshar Publishing to bring you Liberté, which is a top-down strategy game that throws in elements of a rogue-lite with the addition of deck-building aspects for your passive and combat abilities, topping things off with some Lovecraftian body horror and character designs, this strategy horror creation has sent ripples through the gaming community, being received as mostly positive by gamers on Steam.
Liberté takes place in Paris in 1789, on the day of the coronation for the next ruler of France. You are introduced to the main character, who is being called “Petal”, during the cinematic, who is being called by a mysterious voice, who calls to you, are yet to be seen. The main character then slowly regains consciousness due to the unknown person calling to him and asking for help getting to his feet.
You then get to finally see what your character looks like, a handsome young man ripped straight from a painting. The game’s dialogue comments on the carnage around you; confused and skeptical, your character calls back to the faceless voice, asking who they are and maybe if they could show themself. The stranger cries out in a pained voice for your character to hurry.
With the first cutscene done and dusted, you are introduced to Liberté’s tutorial, where the quest log gets explained. You are shown the compass that will guide you in the direction of the quest, so getting lost won’t be so easy. However, if you do get lost, it is also explained you can find direct navigation, which will summon a path of burning embers to guide you to your next objective. Exploring further, you run up on what seems to be a rubble hill, where you meet two soldiers who, right off the bat, want to kill you!
After this encounter, you are explained Liberté’s combat mechanics, such as how doge, doge roll, and of course, combat itself. Combat is composed of multiple factors, such as combat direction, which is based on your mouse placement. After defeating the soldiers, you press forward with much hast, coming across a horrifyingly beautiful, flayed statue-like being with a beating heart in her chest and the simple prompt to touch it.
This being is the amalgamation of beautiful twisted flesh, tissue, and vibrant flora and foliage and is revealed to be the voice we have been following. We come to find out your character’s name is, in fact, Rene; the voice tells Rene to touch the heart once more and witness what has come to pass.
With that, you are shown another beautiful visual cinematic with a gorgeous orchestral composition that sets the mood for the rest of the game; you are also informed of the voice’s origin. She came to restore the balance to the world that was lost because of humans being so violently mistrusting of that what they don’t understand; sadly, her words fell on deaf ears.
She had to fight back against a toxic and violent world. Stripped of strength, the voice became known as Lady Bliss. With the weakened Lady Bliss’s heart in your possession, you must take it to a safe place so that she may recover and hope to rebalance the tainted world.
Having finally reached her safe place, Lady Bliss informs you that you are the only one who has the power to decide how the war ends and who sits upon the throne of France. Being the deciding factor of the game’s plot means you must make difficult choices and must choose between what factions will have influence during the bloody struggle for the throne. These factions include The Church, The Rebels, The Tribe, and The Crown. Making these choices isn’t easy, and you will have to choose wisely, as these choices can change the entire plot of Liberté
Within the game, you’ll also be introduced to the deck builder mechanics; the first few builds will be rather simple, but as you progress through your runs, you will receive more cards that will offer more abilities and playstyles, as well as passive abilities and consumables.. Using a card will cost you mana, you restore mana by burning cards, what type of mana you get depends on the card’s mana cost, higher the cost, more mana you earn.
However, if you’re lucky and fate feels fortunate, you may even get a free mana card. During level-ups, you will occasionally receive more cards, though this depends on how many cards you currently have in your deck. You can also earn cards by slaying foes or chatting with merchants.
While there are no cards that give you negative or neutral effects, you will still need to be careful as to what cards you decide to play or burn, as you are limited on ability slots. With your deck filled and your abilities chosen, you are now ready to take to the streets of France and fight for whatever faction you have decided to put your heart into. As mentioned earlier on, combat is composed of dodging, dodge rolling, and shields, which are your best hope for surviving out on the streets of Paris.
Combat is also made easier thanks to enemies indicating what kind of attack they are about to perform with highlighted indicators. These also indicate whether the attack will be wide-range or long-range attacks. Sadly these indicators show up during close-quarter combat, meaning it’s up to you to dodge or block accordingly if you want to stay alive.
Although avoiding death is sometimes impossible, as shown with your first death, Rene finds out just how closely connected he and Lady Bliss are. Dying for the first time will reveal the true nature of Rene’s existence and the fact he isn’t entirely human. Lady Bliss then reveals how both you and she are connected, but have no fear as your little arrangement comes with a few grizzly perks. Thanks to not being entirely human, Rene isn’t limited to being a rapier-wielding swordsman, and he can, as Lady Bliss puts it,” shed his skin.” Rene can change his appearance and take on the traits and abilities of other NPCs, that is, if they trust you.
As you are reborn from what looks to be floating eggs, you find yourself in The Repertoire of Skins. Here you can change your skin and looks to masquerade as someone else, but as mentioned before, you will need to earn their trust.
You unlock more skins through Influence Points and increase the standing that you have with each faction. If you want to be friends with an NPC, you will also need to be friends with the corresponding faction they are associated with. Influence Points don’t only unlock skins but also unlock Carte Blanche and other rare crafting materials. You can use Carte Blanche to expand your deck and unlock blueprints.
Liberté is very much a choice-based game, as you will come to see with the interactions you have between the members of the various factions. Not all of these factions share similar ideals, and each one has their own goals and ambitions, which come with their own opposition. Meaning what faction you decide to side with will also dictate what cause you are fighting for and what type of enemies you will have to defeat.
What types of enemies you encounter will also change from run to run; this is a roguelite game, after all. Maps on the other hand, tend to stay the same and are composed of moments of combat and peace, and sometimes just the downright strange such as Fragments of The Bliss.
Fragments of The Bliss are strange areas that seem to somehow be connected to Lady Bliss. These strangely beautiful places are also where a lot of the decision-making aspects of Liberté come into play. In each of these strange pockets of bliss, you will have to face off against waves of enemies or a horrible demon that lurks deep inside you. If you are able to defeat the demon, you get a piece of Lady Bliss’s cosmic power, AKA an Ultimate Card. If you choose not to take the card, then you get an extra Bliss Curse, and instead of a demon, you fight waves of powerful enemies.
As you can probably tell, Liberté is simply a beautiful game that combines the disturbingly strange and wonderful designs of H.P. Lovecraft and mixes them with the bright colors of late 18th-century fashion and architecture. The game also incorporates light perfectly into scenes and makes them feel even more cinematic. The game also features some fantastic character art, which makes the characters feel as if they’ve walked out of oil paintings.
Liberté is a complex yet excellent fusion of multiple genres and incorporates, The French Revolution, H.P. Lovecraft, Roguelite, Deck Building, and Top-Down strategy into its design. This strange mishmash is what gives the game such allure and keeps players coming back for more. The game is very mechanic-heavy and can take some time to get used to, but once you get the hang of everything, you will get to experience a game like no other.
